Cordova High School Wins National Recognition
Posted: 2/11/2010

Cordova High School is One of Five High Schools from the United States to Participate in the WISE-Faulkes NEO Confirmation Campaign (March 8 – May 7, 2010).

The Space Sciences Laboratory (University of California, Berkeley), Faulkes Telescope Project (FTP; Cardiff University, UK), Lawrence Hall of Science (University of California, Berkeley), and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC = 'Isaac') are organizing a special WISE NEO confirmation campaign using the two Faulkes Telescopes. Located in Hawaii (FT North) and Australia (FT South), these professional-grade telescopes are 2-m in diameter and directly controllable over the Internet. They are owned and operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope program, based in Santa Barbara, California, with the UK program (FTP) using them for education and public outreach. 

Five high schools are being selected from the United States with a matching five from the United Kingdom. The schools will be paired into five teams to analyze Faulkes images of recently-discovered WISE near-Earth objects (NEOs). These will be confirmations published by the Minor Planet Center in its electronic circulars. The campaign will run from March 8 through May 7, 2010…allowing for spring breaks and two full Moons which take place on March 30th and April 28th. 
Working as teams, one U.S. school paired with one U.K. school, each team will receive image sets from the Faulkes Telescopes up to twice a week. The teams will use Astrometrica to analyze their respective image sets and prepare the report for submission to the Minor Planet Center. 

In addition to astrometric measurements of WISE NEOs, data to determine the colors of a brighter, known Main Belt asteroid may also be collected, at least on one occasion for analysis by the participating schools. If scheduling can be arranged, a series of images will be taken of one of the recently-discovered WISE NEOs to determine its light curve and rotation period. During the 6-week campaign, observing time will be provided to the teams so that they can use the Faulkes Telescopes “live” over the Internet and take confirmation images for use by the other teams. 

The WISE-Faulkes NEO Confirmation Campaign will be managed on behalf of IASC by Jeremy Wood. A community college physics and astronomy professor in Kentucky, Jeremy is a doctoral student at James Cook University. This special campaign is part of his pilot research on his dissertation in astronomy education. 

'This is a fabulous opportunity for our students.', said Jackie Levy, Cordova High School Principal. FCUSD Public Information Officer Stephen Nichols added, 'This honor is a testament to the robust academic program at Cordova High School. The community certainly has cause to celebrate this amazing achievement.'

This is an official activity of the NASA WISE education and public outreach program managed through the Space Sciences Laboratory and Lawrence Hall of Science.